


A Wrinkle in Time

by MsThunderFrost



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Female Reader, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Nightmares, No Real Death Occurs, Pregnancy, Pregnant Reader, Protective Sans (Undertale), Reader Is Not Chara (Undertale), Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), References to Undertale Genocide Route, Sans (Undertale) Needs a Hug, Worried Sans (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:21:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25047577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsThunderFrost/pseuds/MsThunderFrost
Summary: You were not afraid of Sans.But then, one night... you’d dreamed that you were there, in the Last Corridor. Sans, exhausted but visibly unharmed, was offering to spare you. Spare you from what, you weren’t sure－you weren’t a fighter, and there was no reason for Sans to be attacking you. You offered him mercy, because you didn’t understand why you were fighting him and you didn’t want to do so any longer, and he... laughed. Said it must’ve been hard to lay down your ambitions after you’d come so far. And then... he’d killed you. Told you that, if you ever truly loved him, you wouldn’t come back.Night after night, you were plagued by terrifying visions of your husband killing you without remorse for reasons that you did not understand. You hadn’t－wouldn’t－hurt anyone! This wasn’t a genocide run, there was no reason for him to hurt you. Unless... Unless he wanted to.You were not afraid of Sans....But it might not hurt to leave, just in case.
Relationships: Sans (Undertale)/Reader
Comments: 10
Kudos: 125





	1. An Offer of Mercy

You were not afraid of Sans. 

Okay… that may not have been _entirely_ true. At least, not anymore. 

Ever since you’d found out that you were pregnant, you’d been having the most… _unusual_ dreams. Dr. Alphys (while not _that_ kind of doctor, certainly knew more about humans than the vast majority of her monster counterparts－even _if_ that knowledge was almost entirely based on popular anime) had told you that it was normal for women to be plagued by all kinds of bizarre, and sometimes downright terrifying, dreams throughout the course of their pregnancy. But you couldn’t shake the feeling that this was something else. Something _more_.

Sans had told you that there were multiple timelines. He’d told you that, in some of those timelines, the humans who fall into the Underground seek to commit genocide. While Dr. Alphys was able to route a number of the monsters to safety, those who tried to halt the human’s murderous rampage were cut down mercilessly, one after another. Toriel... Papyrus... Undyne... Mettaton... Muffet... the list went on, until the human eventually confronted Sans. Oftentimes, Sans was strong enough to stall them, at least for a little while. But it was only a matter of time until he was killed, just like all the others. A genocide run was not complete until the human had killed _everyone_ , after all.

It’d horrified you, to hear that someone could be capable of such cruelty. But then, one night... you’d dreamed that you were there, in the Last Corridor. Sans, exhausted but visibly unharmed, was offering to spare you. Spare you from _what_ , you weren’t sure－you weren’t a fighter, and there was no reason for Sans to be attacking you. You offered him mercy, because you didn’t understand why you were fighting him and you didn’t want to do so any longer, and he... _laughed_. Said it must’ve been hard to lay down your ambitions after you’d come so far. And then... he’d killed you. Told you that, if you ever truly loved him, you wouldn’t come back.

Night after night, you were plagued by terrifying visions of your husband killing you without remorse for reasons that you did not understand. You hadn’t－ _wouldn’t_ －hurt anyone! This wasn’t a genocide run, there was no reason for him to hurt you. Unless... Unless he _wanted_ to.

You knew that you should _talk_ to Sans about all of this. But what would you even _say_? Ah yes, you see, I’ve been having these dreams where you murder me and it’s really starting to freak me out so... The rational part of your brain was certain that Sans would not harm you. He loved you, and he’d love your baby, too (once you finally told him about his baby bone). But then... you kept having that same dream, over and over, and that... that had to mean something, right? Maybe your body knew something that you didn’t. Maybe it was trying to protect you, to clue you in on the impending danger before it was too late. 

Tonight was just like all the others. You wake up panting in a pool of sweat, muscles aching as if they had been subjected to Sans’ poison. You feel like you can’t catch your breath. You desperately attempt to remind yourself that it was just a dream, but you can’t quite choke back the sob that rises in your throat as you remember the _pain_ that accompanied your LOVE rapidly depleting－

“hey. _h_ _ey_. what’s the matter?” Sans blinks up at you, reaching out for your arm in the dark. You jerk away from him so fast, you almost topple off of the other side of the bed. “okay,” he raises his hands slowly, “i won’t touch ya. but ya need ta calm down, kiddo. at this rate, your gonna choke on your own snot－,”

“S-Sorry. Sorry.” You force a smile that didn’t quite meet your eyes, “Just... had a bad dream, that’s all. I, uh... I didn’t mean to wake you up.” You try to subtly inch a bit further away from him, jumping a little when your hand slides off the edge of the bed. “I-I’ll just... I need to... I’m gonna go wash my face off.”

“of course,” he says slowly. “take your time.” You nod, scrambling to your feet, whilst silently praying that your wobbly legs will be able to support your weight. You don’t think you’ve ever moved so fast in your life. 

You lock yourself in the bathroom, and take a deep, shuddering breath. He’s worried about you now. He’ll have questions. Questions that you don’t want to－and don’t know _how_ to－answer. He won’t push, extending the same courtesy that you show him when _his_ sleep is plagued by nightmares that you cannot hope to understand and he’s too uncomfortable to share. But you’ll be able to see the way that it’s bothering him in his radioactive blue eye-lights. You’ll be able to－

You remember the way his phalanges had felt, grazing over your skin. A gentle, worried caress that should have brought comfort now made you practically _sick_ with fear. You tried to spare him, and he _killed_ you. He killed you. He _killed_ you. _He killed you_. 

There’s a quiet knock on the door. You nearly jump out of your skin, moving as far away from the door as possible despite knowing that it’s locked. “i, uh... just wanted to let ya know that Pap’s makin’ pancakes. if he doesn’t burn down the house, it might do ya some good to have somethin’ in your stomach...” 

You don’t say anything. Your mouth feels like it’s filled with broken pieces of chalk, and you aren’t sure you _would_ be able to say anything, even if you wanted to.

“i’ll, uh... see ya down there, i guess.” You don’t hear him leave, but a couple of minutes later you can hear him bickering with his brother downstairs (or, rather, Papyrus loudly bickering with Sans, and Sans taking the bait just for the sake of entertaining his brother) and you let out a shaky breath.

You were not afraid of Sans.

...But it might not hurt to leave, just in case. 


	2. Training with Undyne?

It takes you almost seven minutes to make your hands stop shaking. 

It’s...  _ fine _ . Everything is  _ fine _ . Even if the thought of eating pancakes makes bile rise in the back of your throat, you know that you need to eat. If not for yourself, then for your child. Besides, Papyrus is actually a halfway decent cook, when he’s not accidentally burning the house down. Undyne might have some...  _ unconventional _ teaching methods, but you have to give credit where credit is due. She knows how to get results. 

Speaking of Undyne... you wonder if the Captain of the Royal Guard might be willing to take you on for some one-on-one training. You’re not a fighter. Hell, you probably would’ve stayed in the Ruins with Toriel had you not been so put-off by the idea of someone taking care of you for the rest of your life. Toriel had told you about the others that’d come before. The fallen children. When you’d rested in her home after your...  _ adventure _ , you’d found the box of their mismatched shoes in the corner. As you were a grown woman, she had a  _ bit _ more faith in your ability to survive the dangers of the Underground...

You’d later discover that she’d spoken with your future husband and asked him to protect the  _ sweet _ soul who just couldn’t manage to dodge an attack to save her life. Sans’d wanted to think she was exaggerating... and then he saw Papyrus almost kill you with his infamous ‘blue attack’, and, well...

Undyne likes you well enough. Or, at least, you think that she does. You’re not exactly sure. She  _ did _ try to kill you, once upon a time, but you’re almost certain that she does that with everyone. It’s like... her way of saying ‘hello’. But you’re important to Sans, which means that you’re important to Papyrus, and anyone that’s important to Papyrus eventually manages to worm their way into Undyne’s heart. You’re confident that if you go to her and ask her for basic self-defense training, she won’t laugh you out of Waterfall. If you explain that you have no intention of harming the other monsters, she might even go for it. 

...Or, she’ll try to find out what you want training for, if not to hurt the monsters in the Underground. After all, the Underground is your home. You are...  _ happily _ married to Sans, and no monster would dare raise a hand against Sans’ mate. Not only that, but... you’re pretty sure that Sans once mentioned that monsters are more in-tune with their SOULs than humans. They could probably feel the SOUL of the child growing inside of you－no monster would be cruel enough to attack you in your current state. Sans could probably feel the SOUL too, if he really tried. But knowing your husband like you do... 

You splash some water on your face, plaster on the biggest smile that you can manage, and call downstairs, “Papyrus! If those pancakes taste  _ half _ as good as they smell, they’re gonna be absolutely  _ amazing _ !” 

“SEE, SANS? AT LEAST THERE”S  _ ONE _ PERSON IN THIS HOUSE WITH TASTE!” Oh boy. It sounds like you might’ve just made  _ whatever _ it is that they’re bickering about that much worse. 

“yeah well, most people don’t put tabasco sauce in pancakes. just sayin’.” Sans says. But where he normally sounds amused, now he just sounds tired. Your heart sinks, knowing that you’re at least partially responsible for that. “but y’know what? i’m sure she’ll love it.”

“IT’S EXPERIMENTAL! BUT, SEEING AS YOU ARE NOT A CHEF, LIKE MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, I SUPPOSE I CANNOT EXPECT YOU TO UNDERSTAND!” Your stomach cramps at the thought of pancake dough mixed with tabasco sauce. That... sounds absolutely disgusting. 

You head downstairs. You try to smile when you catch Sans setting the table, doing your best to stifle your instinct to give him a wide berth. He won’t hurt you. He definitely won’t hurt you with an audience. You hate that that is the first thought that pops into your head. Sans’ eye-lights flicker toward you, but otherwise, he doesn’t acknowledge you. Papyrus pops out of the kitchen with a stack of oddly-colored pancakes, looking as cheerful as ever. If he knows that anything is amiss, he’s hiding it amazingly well. 

“BROTHER! AFTER YOU’VE FINISHED EATING, YOU SHOULD HEAD OUT TO SNOWDIN FOREST TO RECALIBRATE YOUR PUZZLES!” Papyrus says, as he fills your plate with tabasco-flavored pancakes covered in a hearty helping of maple syrup. You smile, doing your best to breathe in through your mouth and resist the urge to gag.

“...okay.” Sans says, sounding... tired. It’s different to his usual brand of exhaustion. You try to make yourself feel a bit better about it, reasoning that he’s not usually up this early, but... 

“WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH TODAY. BROTHER? WE WOULDN”T STAND A CHANCE AGAINST THEM WITH THE CURRENT STATE OF YOUR PUZZLES!” Papyrus huffs. Then, he turns to you, “MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE! I MADE ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE TO HAVE SECONDS!”

You use the side of your fork to cut off the smallest piece of pancake imaginable, giving Papyrus an uncertain little smile before finally digging in. It’s not... awful. Either that, or all your taste buds have died as a result of you being the official taste-tester for all of his experimental dishes. “I-It’s great, Pap. Really.” 

“OF COURSE IT IS! FOR IT WAS MADE BY ME, THE  _ GREAT  _ PAPYRUS!”

You take another bite, watching as Sans continues to shuffle his food around his plate in obvious disinterest. Even though Papyrus had slathered Sans’ shortstack in ketchup, he had yet to take a bite. “So, uh... how long do you think it’ll take you to recalibrate the puzzles?” You ask.

Papyrus considers this for a moment, before shrugging. “IT SHOULD NOT TAKE ME LONG. I STRIVE TO KEEP ALL OF MY PUZZLES IN THE UTMOST CONDITION!” He says, “SANS, ON THE OTHER HAND...”

“i’ll fix ‘em, alright?” Sans huffs, irritation leaking into his tone. 

“I WON’T FIND YOU SLEEPING ON THE JOB?”

Sans frowns, “...no.”

The rest of breakfast is, thankfully, uneventful. It seems that Sans is too busy trying to fend off his brother to pry any deeper into the meaning behind your unusual behavior. You don’t think you’ve ever been more thankful for Papyrus’ innocent meddling before. Once everyone is done eating (or, in Sans’ case, done pushing the food around on his plate until it is inedible), you offer to clean up so that the brothers can prepare for their respective shifts. Locked away in the kitchen, you manage to avoid seeing your husband and brother-in-law for the remainder of the morning. 

Once you’re sure that they’re gone, you pack yourself a small bag of essentials and head out as well. The brothers will be occupied until dinnertime, at the earliest, and it’s not uncommon for you to perform odd jobs around the Underground to keep yourself busy in their absence. You spent most of your time in the Hotland with Dr. Alphys, performing routine maintenance on Mettaton when she was busy with her other... experiments. She didn’t really like to talk about what she had hidden away in her lab, but... she’d been one of the first friends you’d made after leaving the Ruins, and Mettaton was always there with a pick-me-up when you were feeling blue.

Well, it wasn’t so much a  _ pick-me-up _ as it was a CD that he played that rattled off one-hundred and one reasons why you should love yourself. But it was Mettaton  _ playing _ the CD, so... 

But today, your destination is Waterfall. It takes about thirty minutes to walk from the brothers’ house to Undyne’s, but the walk is...  _ peaceful _ . You stop and chat with Onion-san for awhile (they get so  _ lonely _ now that all of their friends have moved to the aquarium) and pop into the Temmie Village to stock-up on Tem flakes, just in case. It’s always nice to give them a little treat, when you can afford to do so. 

Before you can even knock on her front door, it’s already swinging open. “Human! What an unexpected surprise.”

“Uh... hi, Undyne.” You swallow hard. The fish-woman is still a bit scary, even after all this time. “I was wondering if I could, uh...  _ ask _ you something? Kinda like... a  _ favor _ .”

She raises one crimson-red eyebrow, “A... favor?” You wonder if anyone ever asked Undyne for a favor before, and soon decide that the answer is  _ probably not _ .

“I was wondering if you’d be willing to teach me some self-defense techniques.” You blurt out, before you can convince yourself that this is an absolutely horrid idea. “I-I don’t actually want to hurt anyone. It’s... It’s nothing like that, I promise. It’s just... I was thinking about... maybe it’s time that I...”

Undyne is watching you expectantly. “That you...”

“I want to go home.”

Okay, that’s... not exactly true. And also, clearly not what Undyne was expecting to hear, as she’s currently staring at you as if you’d suddenly sprouted a second head. “Um... w-why don’t you come inside? I don’t think this is a conversation to be having out in the open like this.”

She looks around cautiously, before dragging you inside her front door and slamming the door closed behind you. You take a seat at her dining room table and watch as she goes through the motions of making you a cup of tea. She seems almost... distracted, and ends up making a terrific mess pouring boiling hot water straight from the kettle onto the floor. You hurry in with a towel before she can burn herself too badly. 

“...have you talked to Sans about this?” Undyne asks.

You’re surprised by how easy it is for you to lie to her. “Yes, I... can I be honest with you, Undyne?” She gives the slightest nod. “We uh... Things between us haven’t been good for a little while and I... I just want to get to the surface in one piece. I want to go home.”

There’s a long pause, before Undyne finally asks, “...is this because of the baby?”

“T-The baby?” Her response throws you for a loop. Seeing as you had yet to actually come out and admit that you were pregnant to... well,  _ anyone _ , it’s surprising to hear someone just come out and say it. “Well, he wasn’t t-thrilled. But I... I want to keep them, even if I have to do it alone, so...”

“He doesn’t want the baby?” She seems surprised. 

You wish you knew. But you’d never told him. “...no.”

There’s a long moment of silence as Undyne takes this in. She finishes making you a cup of tea with the remaining water, before nodding to herself. “Okay, I... Okay. If you’re ready to give me one-hundred and ten percent, then come by my house after I get off of work and we’ll start working on the basics. It might not get you to the surface, but... at least you won’t die, trying to get there.”

“Thank you, Undyne.” You smile at her as she finishes readying for work, and say your goodbyes as she heads out the door. It takes about thirty seconds for you to start overthinking everything you’d just told her.

Is she going to tell Sans?

...Do you really want to stick around long enough to find out?


	3. Love is an Open Door

It doesn’t take long for Undyne to track down Sans. For once, he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be, seated at his Sentry Station in the middle of Snowdin forest. He’s even  _ awake _ . 

Something is  _ horribly _ wrong.

It takes him a few minutes to notice Undyne standing there. Which is... more than a little concerning, considering he’s not actually  _ doing _ anything. He’s just... sitting in his station, staring off into space, absently squeezing an almost empty bottle of ketchup. But when he  _ does _ acknowledge her, she notices that his eye lights seem to be a bit dimmer than usual. She wants to call him on not doing anything all morning, but, well... the thing is, he’s  _ done _ all his work. He’s recalibrated all his puzzles, even going so far as to replace that blasted Junior Jumble he’d been tearing out of the paper every morning with something a bit more... challenging. 

It’s certainly not on par with any of the puzzles that Papyrus had created. Even the plate of frozen spaghetti next to an unplugged microwave is more inspired. But it’s not a flimsy piece of paper resting on a hunk of ice and snow, either. Undyne wants to ask him about it, but... there’re more pressing matters at the moment, and she has a sinking feeling that the two are somehow related. She knows that she’s risking a lot, leaving you alone in her house after you’d confessed so much. She’s hoping that you’re at least somewhat cognizant of the danger you’d face, progressing deeper into the Underground, and that you might think twice before you...

Well, before you do something  _ stupid _ . 

“You know, I had the most fascinating conversation with your wife this morning.” Undyne’s never been one to beat around the bush, and she’s not about to start now. It doesn’t pay to pull punches, after all. “She told me that she wants to return to the surface.”

Sans blinks, “she... what? i... i’ll admit she was actin’ kinda  _ weird _ this mornin’, but... she never said anythin’ about wantin’ to go back to the surface.” 

Undyne frowns, “Really? How odd. Because she said that the two of you had had a falling out,” The corners of Sans’ toothy smile twitch, beginning to turn down into a frown. “She said that you don’t want the baby－,”

“i don’t want the...  _ what _ ?” His responses are becoming increasingly less coherent. She can detect a hint of panic seeping into his tone... but more than anything, he just seems  _ tired _ . “i-i didn’t even know that she  _ knew _ she was pregnant. it’s different for humans－,”

“But she hasn’t  _ spoken _ with you about the pregnancy?” The Captain of the Royal Guard presses.

Sans is fully frowning now, “we haven’t talked much at all. she, uh... i guess she had some kinda nightmare this mornin’, but she didn’t wanna talk ‘bout it and i wasn’t gonna push her. if i’d known she wanted to go home, i woulda talked to her ‘bout it.” He says.

“So you’ve known about the child this whole time.” She’s not entirely sure why she’s surprised. She’s always known that Sans is smarter, that he  _ knows _ more, than he lets on. And while it’s true that any monster with even an iota of power should be able to sense your pregnancy... well, “Why didn’t you say something?”

“i already told ya. i wasn’t sure if she knew, and i didn’t want to freak her out.” Sans says, “the hell was I supposed to say. so, uh... i think ya might be carryin’ a little baby bones... how do i know? well, funny thing ‘bout that－i kinda felt their soul form in the middle of－,”

Undyne slaps a hand over Sans’ mouth, “I  _ really _ don’t need to know the details of your sex life.”

Sans shrugs, “you asked.”

So Sans had known about the pregnancy from the start, and hadn’t said anything because he was afraid of freaking you out. His explanation makes sense, in a way. From what Undyne had heard from Alphys, human pregnancies were quite different to monster pregnancies. Where monster women knew that they were pregnant from the moment of conception, Undyne understood that, in humans, it could take some time.And they had these little plastic devices, which were somehow capable of detecting hormone changes through urine, which told them whether or not they were pregnant (with some margin for error)... it all sounded terrifically messy and, quite frankly, kind of disgusting. 

There were a number of other differences as well, including gestation period (for monsters, it differed depending on breed, whereas humans seemed to be fairly consistent at nine months) and the type of birth (only a handful of monsters actually have live births, whereas humans seemed to only be able to have live births). With so many differences, Sans’ hesitation was understandable. If he knew that you were pregnant before you yourself began to exhibit any of the usual signs, it might be a bit... alarming. But that didn’t explain why he’d continued to hold his tongue after you’d discovered the truth. 

Undyne sighs, “She came to me this morning, asking for training. Said she didn’t want to hurt anyone, she just wanted to learn some basic self-defense techniques to better her odds of making it to the surface in one piece.”

Sans has started squeezing the ketchup bottle again. Clench... and release. Clench... and release. “so, uh... what’d ya tell her? i’m assumin’, since you’re here and all, that you told her that you’d train her.” 

“Yeah, I... I told her that, if she was serious about wanting to return to the surface, than I’d help her. Of course I did. But I only agreed to it because I thought that you two were having problems.” Undyne says, “Now, I think that the two of you need to sit down and talk－ _ really _ talk－before I do anything else.”

“that’s... easier said than done.” Sans says, before elaborating, “she won’t talk to me.”

“Have you actually  _ tried _ ?”

The skeleton stares at her, thoroughly unimpressed. He knows that she has reason to be skeptical, but damn. He’s actually a halfway decent husband (or, at least, he likes to think that he is). “of course I’ve tried talking to her. she was in such a rush to get away from me, she almost launched herself of the side of the bed.”

Undyne frowns, “There’s clearly something else going on. She seemed...  _ terrified _ . And there’s no reason for her to be scared of  _ you _ , right? ‘Cause, if there is, and there’s something you’re  _ not _ telling me, I’ll have to kick your lazy ass all the way to the surface.”

“...go ahead and train her.” Sans says, after a moment of consideration.

Undyne blinks several times in quick succession, “I’m sorry...  _ what _ ?”

“it ain’t like it’ll hurt anythin’, teachin’ her some of the basics.” He says with a shrug. His eye lights are focused off somewhere in the distance. “and it ain’t really my place, to say what she can and can’t do, y’know? she’s her own person, and can do what she wants.” 

For a minute, Undyne is almost... surprised. She’s not sure why Sans would want you to train with her, knowing that you want to use that training to  _ leave _ him, and the Underground, forever. If you’re successful－and that’s a  _ big _ if (as much as she loves Asgore－and knows, deep down, that he doesn’t really want to hurt anyone－she knows that you’ll have to confront him if you want to leave the Underground and... well... if it’s a  _ fight _ , someone has to  _ win _ , right?)－he’ll likely never see you, or your unborn child, again. For a man whose only real motivation is his family, she can’t understand why he’d just... stand aside at such a critical crossroad.

She’s known Sans almost her entire life. He’s lazy, sure, but... he’s always seemed to know more than he lets on. She doesn’t really know how to describe it. But she  _ does _ know that she’s never actually seen him do any work before... so whatever is going on between the two of you is really affecting him. And as his friend, she’s concerned. Even with his permission to train you (not that you really  _ needed _ his permission, but...), she cannot help but feel as though she would be overstepping if she did so. 

What... What if something happened to you? She’s certain that you’re actually pretty tough... or, that you would be, with the proper training. But that doesn’t mean that you’d survive a fight against the likes of Asgore. If you were to die, she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to forgive herself. 

And she knew that Sans  _ definitely _ wouldn’t. He wasn’t really the...  _ forgiving _ kind, where his family was concerned.

“Will you... come by my house after work today?” She asks, finally. “Assuming she hasn’t run, it might be a good chance for the two of you to...  _ chat _ . I’ll even make spaghetti!”

_ Now _ , Sans looks scared. “uh, yeah... maybe... try not to start the house on fire with her in it?”

Undyne looks offended, “How else am I supposed to achieve that amazing, charbroiled taste?”

“By using a...  _ grill _ , maybe?”

That’s not an out and out no, so she considers that a win. She has work to do still, so she cannot spend the entire day speaking with Sans... so she kind of has to hope that everything will fall into place. She has to check in with Royal Guard 01 and Royal Guard 02 in Hotland... and maybe pay a visit to Dr. Alphys while she’s at it. And if things don’t work out, well... 

She’s going to do her best not to think about that. 

* * *

You need to leave. Like...  _ now _ .

Your rational brain tells you that there is nothing that Undyne prioritizes above monster safety－meaning that, if she were to confront Sans about what you’d told her, it probably wouldn’t be until the end of her shift. And by then, the odds of Sans still being at his Sentry Station were slim to none. He left his station at least five times a day just to eat at Grillby’s.  _ At least _ . You’d seen his tab at Grillby’s, once upon a time. He owed the fire elemental more money than you’d seen in your entire life... which was made worse by the fact that you often wondered whether any of Sans’ jobs actually...  _ paid _ him for his services. 

The  _ problem _ is that the Royal Guard have eyes and ears literally  _ everywhere _ . If you’re not careful, she’ll be able to track you... and then what? Your hands start shaking as you remember that horrible, horrible dream. The bright blue light of a Gaster Blaster, so similar to the color of Sans’ eye lights, enveloping you seconds before your entirety evaporates into nothing. Sans’ poisoned bone attacks tearing into your skin, making everything  _ ache _ －

You don’t want to die. 

Your first thought is to go to the Hotland and stay with Dr. Alphys, but... Dr. Alphys wouldn’t be able to keep a secret, not from Undyne. Maybe you could stay at the MTT-Resort-Hotel? Rooms usually cost a fortune, but you’d performed enough maintenance on Mettaton over the years that he considered you a friend (enough to smuggle you Glamburgers everytime that he came to Snowdin to visit Papyrus), so he might be willing to give you a discount. Maybe. The point is, it’d be a place to rest your head, away from the prying eye of the Royal Guard... and with the quality of the customer service team, Sans’d likely be left on hold for the rest of eternity if he tried to call in and find out what room you’d checked into...

Just as you’re putting the finishing touches in your plan, your phone starts to ring. It catches you off-guard, considering that almost  _ nobody _ calls you anymore. You answer without looking at the Caller ID－only a handful of monsters in the Underground actually have your number, and few have the tenacity of Papyrus to try thousands of different number combinations until they stumble across the correct one to reach you.

“Hello?” You say, as you make a beeline for the door. There’s no time to lose, after all.

“A-Ah, I... I wasn’t e-expecting you to... you don’t normally... t-the phone rang s-so many times, I thought it w-would go to voicemail.” Ah, Dr. Alphys... it’s not who you were expecting, if you could really say you’d been expecting someone at all. 

“Was there something that you needed, Alphys?” Okay, that... definitely came across a lot rougher than you’d intended. After a long stretch of silence, you sigh, “I-I’m sorry, Alphys. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just... not having the best morning. But there’s no excuse to take my frustration out on you.”

“I-It’s, ah... it’s okay.” Alphys says, sounding like she’s regretting her decision to call you in the first place. “You’re due for your... for your check...c-check...  _ check-up _ . Twelve weeks.”

“Yeah. T-Twelve weeks.” You repeat. You can hardly believe that you’re already twelve weeks along. 

“Are you... C-Can you come to the l-lab? I-I want to... to run a f-few tests to make s-sure your baby bones is growing strong.” She says. “U-Unless you’re busy! We can... We can always reschedule, hahahaha... ha... haaah...” 

“I’m... actually on my way to Hotland now. I can be there in a couple of hours.” You say. So that’s that. It’s like the universe is trying to tell you to hide out in the MTT-Resort-Hotel until further notice. 

You love Sans more than anything. And that’s why you cannot tell him that you’ve become genuinely afraid that he might hurt you based on nothing more than a handful of dreams. If you can just put some distance between the two of you, you’re sure that the dreams will stop and things’ll return to normal. Things  _ have _ to return to normal, right? You’re not just going to spend the rest of your days dreaming of your husband murdering you... right? 

Maybe... Maybe you should talk to Dr. Alphys about all of this.

* * *

And somewhere, deep in the heart of Snowdin Forest... a door opens. 


	4. Congratulations, It's A--!

Frisk isn’t sure what they’d been expecting at the end of that long,  _ long _ hallway leading out of the Ruins. Toriel hadn’t had too much to say about the rest of the Underground, save that there were a number of monsters lurking there that meant them harm. Which was…  _ terrifying _ , but if they wanted to return home, they didn’t have much choice but to continue pressing forward. 

The door to the Ruins slams closed behind them with a sort of heartbreaking finality. For a moment, they wonder if they made the right decision, if they shouldn’t have just stayed in the Ruins with Toriel. But there’s no point in contemplating what-ifs, not now. Toriel had made herself quite clear－if they were to choose to leave the Ruins, they would never be able to come back. There’s no choice but to continue pressing forward, and so they do. Besides, it’s rather chilly, out in this snow-covered forest, and they’re decidedly underdressed for the weather. 

They start to move forward (there’s a video camera hiding in one of the nearby bushes－it looks kind of like the ones that Frisk had seen in grocery stores on the service… could someone be watching them?), wanting to clear the forest as fast as possible. There has to be some sort of settlement nearby, maybe some place with an inn… Frisk checks their pockets, counting the G that they’ve accumulated thus far… maybe they’ll have a store, too. Some place where they can cash in their hard-earned G for something warm to eat. Their stomach starts to rumble at the thought. Food would be absolutely  _ divine _ right now. That battle against Toriel had been…  _ draining _ , to say the least. They still have that slice of butterscotch-cinnamon pie, of course, but something tells them that they ought to hold onto that for a little while…

It doesn’t take long for Frisk to begin to suspect that they’re not alone. They cannot point to anything in particular that gets their hackles raised, but they cannot deny the fact that they start to move…  _ faster _ . The forest is  _ dark _ . Even though it’s midday, it is difficult to see only a few feet in front of them at a time because the foliage is so  _ thick _ . There could literally be  _ anything,  _ lurking in the pitch-blackness. They know that it’s likely nothing  _ too _ powerful, but… their heart is pounding, their blood rushing in their ears. And that’s when they hear the sound of the twig, which they’d passed just a short while ago, snapping underfoot. It resonates several times in silence (why is it always so  _ quiet _ when it snows?), and they find themselves frozen, unable to progress across across a little, rickety wooden bridge. At first, they wonder if they’re just so scared that their body stopped responding. 

And then, they realize that their heart is rapidly pounding outside of their body. And, it’s… blue?

Why is it  _ blue _ ?

Then, they’re being turned around, their body being moved by an outside force. There’s a figure lurking in the shadows, the few rays of light that manage to force their way through the trees reflecting off of the stark white of their… bones? Is their body being controlled by a… a  _ skeleton _ ?

“human… don’t you know how to greet a new pal? why dontcha shake my hand?” They shake the skeleton’s hand, and… was that a  _ whoopee cushion _ ? What the… “ahh, the good ol’ whoopee cushion in the hand trick. it’s  _ always _ funny.” He looks like he’s  _ trying _ to smile. And failing. Miserably. 

“Who… Who  _ are _ you?” Which is, of course, code for ‘do I need to be worried that you’re going to try to kill me’. Frisk studies the skeleton for a moment longer and decides that he looks…  _ sad _ .

“the name’s Sans. Sans the skeleton. i’m supposed to be on the lookout for humans, but… y’know, i don’t really care about capturing anybody…” He shrugs, before hunkering further down into his soft blue sweatshirt. He seems to be just as ill-prepared for the weather, if not more so, considering that he’s wearing a pair of old slippers. 

Toriel had told them to try and engage the monsters in conversation, so… “Why choose to be a sentry if you don’t want to… ‘capture’ humans?” They sign. The skeleton studies their hands curiously. 

“gotta pay the bills somehow, kid. ‘sides, i got an itty-bitty lil’ baby bones on the way. y’know how expensive those can be.” Frisk did not, in fact, know how expensive a baby bones could be, but nodded anyway in case it kept the skeleton talking. “now my brother, Papyrus, he’s a real human huntin’  _ fanatic _ . even managed to capture one, once upon a time.” 

Frisk stares at the skeleton nervously, wondering if he’s just biding his time so that he can turn them over to his brother at the first opportunity. It would be… incredibly disappointing if they’d managed to convince Toriel that they had what it takes to survive the perils of the Underground, just to die less than an hour’s walk from the door to the Ruins. But Sans… he doesn’t  _ seem _ dangerous. And if he thought that Frisk was a danger to him, then surely he wouldn’t have told them that he had a family nearby, right? 

They let him lead them across the bridge, through bars so wide they were unlikely to stop  _ anyone _ . And they take his advice, choosing to hide behind a conveniently located lamp while he converses with his… very  _ loud _ brother. This…  _ Papyrus _ sounds irritated, and yet, strangely proud of the fact that Sans had taken the time to actually recalibrate his puzzles. It sounds as if whatever Sans’d come up with is particularly challenging－so much so that even Papyrus had struggled attempting to figure it out! Papyrus then adds that, of course, Sans was only capable of making such a magnificent puzzle because he had hands-on training from the best puzzle-maker in Snowdin, the Great Papyrus himself! Sans… doesn’t really seem  _ present _ in the conversation. He makes…  _ noises _ at all the appropriate junctures, sure, but… somehow, Frisk can tell that he’s not really  _ there _ . 

And then, the topic of the conversation seems to shift. They’re talking about a woman, but Frisk is unable to catch her name. She seems to be related to them somehow. Could it be a sister? A wife? A child? Whoever they are, they’re currently at someone named Undyne’s house, and apparently they’ve all been invited over for dinner. It’s such a domestic scene, for a moment, Frisk is almost certain that Sans has forgotten that they’re there. But then, he sends his brother off, and tells Frisk to come back out. Frisk fights to overcome the overwhelming urge to stay hidden－the skeleton seems nice enough, and he’d called himself their pal… and, to be fair, most of the monsters that’d attacked them already hadn’t taken the time to have a full-blown conversation with them first, but something tells them that he’s far more powerful than he’s letting on…

“oh, uh… could ya do me a favor, kid?” Sans kicks at the snow with the fluffy toe of his slipper, “i know that we don’t know each other all that well and all, but… ya see, my brother, Pap… it’s been a while since he’s seen a real, live, surface-dwellin’ human, y’know? so, couldja maybe just… humor him for a lil’ while? for me?”

Frisk may not want to fight anyone, but they’re also not stupid. Toriel told them that very few creatures in the Underground are going to want to make friends with them right off the bat－they need to use their head if they want to avoid being killed. “I－,”

As if reading their mind, Sans continues, “ya don’t need to worry. Pap isn’t dangerous, even if he tries to be. and besides, i’mma keep an eye out for ya, kid.”

“You are?” Frisk signs. They must look surprised, because Sans laughs, muttering something about that being the first expression he’d seen on their face since they’d met. “But… why?”

He shrugs, “who can say? maybe impending fatherhood is makin’ me soft. or maybe there’s someone out there that really cares about you, even when you’re far away.” He says. “keep your chin up, kid. try not to get into any kinda mortal peril before our paths cross again, yeah?”

“Right…” And then he’s gone, like he was never even there in the first place. And just like that, they’re alone again. Except this time, the forest seems just a little bit brighter than it did before. How odd.

* * *

“Alphys… who is that in your camera there?” You ask, staring at one of the tremendous monitors that take up the far left side of the lab. You knew that Alphys had cameras set up to monitor the whole of the Underground, but you didn’t think that they had ever picked up anything other than the ordinary, day-to-day machinations of monster life.

“T-That, right there… is a human!” The reptilian-monster exclaims excitedly. “They c-came out of the Ruins a-about thirty minutes… t-thirty minutes ago… They ran straight into Sans’ Sentry S-Station out in Snowdin f-forest!”

“I mean, I  _ know _ it’s a human.” You say. You try to keep the bite out of your tone, but the doctor flinches nonetheless. Fuck the pregnancy hormones, and all of this goddamned  _ stress _ , for making you so irritable. “You said that they came out of the Ruins, right? Does that mean… Do you think that they…?”

“I-I don’t know.” Alphys says, “B-But it looks like Sans… wasn’t a-able to stop them.”

You roll your eyes, “Did he even try?”

“It, uh… doesn’t appear so, no.” Alphys starts to look nervous, as she does in any uncomfortable social situation. The sweat dripping down her face is almost visible, “B-But enough about that! C-Come… sit down r-right over… over here, yes… and t-tell me how y-you’ve been feeling.” 

“Tired,” you allow Alphys to direct you into a nearby chair and collapse heavily. 

“Y-You’re still having… having t-trouble sleeping?” You nod. “Is it b-because of the… the nightmares?” You know what’s coming. She’s going to ask if you’ve talked to Sans about all of this, and you don’t really want to talk about all of the things that you and Sans  _ haven’t _ talked about. “You know, it’s… it’s not uncommon for p-pregnant women to e-experience… h-heightened l-levels of exhaustion.”

“Yeah, just… yeah.” Because it’s easier to just agree with her than to confess to the truth, “I just need to, uh… sleep a little bit more, that’s all. Allow my body a chance to get used to all the, uh… all the  _ changes _ .”

There’s a long pause, “Is there… anything that you’d… that you would… l-like to t-t-talk… about?” 

“No, that’s… I’m good.”

Dr. Alphys leads you into the true lab, where she hooks you up to an incredibly convoluted machine. It doesn’t look like any of the machines that you’d seen in gynecological offices on the surface, but then… well, you’ve been in the Underground for so long now, everything here is starting to become the new normal. She smears a cool gel over your still-flat stomach and presses a paddle to your skin, and after a few seconds of searching, manages to locate your itty-bitty little baby bones. They’re a lot bigger than a human baby would be after three months… like,  _ a lot _ bigger. How long is the gestation period for a skeleton monster, anyhow? You realize, with a start, that you don’t actually know. 

The baby is healthy. A rush of relief washes over you as soon as Alphys says those words. She offers to tell you the sex of the child and you hesitate, just a moment. You feel like that’s the sort of thing that you should wait to hear with Sans. If you… you know, ever  _ tell _ Sans about the child in the first place. Just the reminder that you’ve kept such important information from Sans in the first place is enough to make your gut twist in shame. It’s his child, too. And despite the fact that you’ve been plagued by these horrific nightmares almost every night, there has never been even the slightest indication that Sans would lay a single philagnge on  _ any _ child－especially his own. The fact that he’d just let the surfacer child walk free, without making even the  _ slightest _ attempt to capture them, speaks volumes. He might hurt  _ you _ , but the child? Never. 

You hate that you consider, even for a minute, that Sans might hurt you. 

It ends up taking next to nothing to wear you down, and you find out that you’re having a little girl. You almost want to ask how Dr. Alphys can tell, but before you can ask, you hear her phone start ringing. Her ringtone is the OP to her current favorite anime (it changes so often, you have trouble keeping up with it). You don’t know who’s calling, at least, not at first… but the crimson-red flush on her cheeks is evidence enough. She stutters out a quick apology, and you nod and smile at tell her to take the call－

“But, uh… whatever you do, please don’t tell her that I’m here with you, alright?” You ask. It occurs to you that Undyne still thinks that you’re at her house, and Dr. Alphys doesn’t know that you’re trying to run away. 

“O-Oh yeah… o-of course.” Dr. Alpyhs nods several times in quick succession, and then excuses herself into the other room. 

A little girl. In a handful of months, you’re going to have a little baby girl. Your mind is filled with dozens of different thoughts, which all come to a screeching halt when you hear a familiar voice calling out to you, “...oh, hello darling. I wasn’t expecting you to visit the lab today.”

You smile, “Dr. Alphys called me in to check on my little baby bones.” You say, “But what’re you doing here? Isn’t today the day that you film your handwashing show?” 

“It is. But we’re running one of several pre-recorded episodes this afternoon because the brilliant Dr. Alphys has informed me that there is a  _ human _ in the Underground. And so Dr. Alphys wanted to upgrade my body for increased defense… just incase.” 

Your smile starts to slip a little, “You don’t think that the human is dangerous, do you?” 

“One can never be too sure, darling. Just because they haven’t hurt anyone yet, doesn’t mean that they won’t. We can’t all be as trusting as your dear…  _ husband _ .” Mettaton says, the disdain in his tone almost palpable. You aren’t sure why the two don’t like each other, but you know that their ill-will toward one another has existed since long before you came to the Underground…

“I… suppose that’s true.” You say. It never occurred to you that the human could be harmful. Could that be the reason you’ve been having such awful dreams? 

“But don’t worry, beautiful! The lab is one of the safest places in the Underground!” Mettaton says, “You know that    
I was originally designed to be a human eradication robot, darling. I would never hurt you, of course, but… there are some people that I want to protect.”

You think back to Sans letting the human go… If what he’s told you is true, the human will continue to progress through Snowdin until they inevitably confront Papyrus. If they hurt Papyrus… if they  _ kill _ him… your heart clenches, tears burning in the corners of your eyes at the thought of your precious cinnamon roll of a brother-in-law coming to harm. What if they hurt Undyne… or Mettaton… or  _ Sans _ ? What if they hurt you and your child? Why is everything so much more terrifying now that you’re carrying a baby?

And in that moment… you say the only thing you can think of. “T-Thank you, Mettaton.”


End file.
